Celebrating Black History Month: A Personal Journey of Service

Meet Eric Horne, an amazing TouchPoint frontline associate and co-founder of My Brother’s Keeper Homeless Outreach Ministry, an Indiana nonprofit organization. Hear in his own words his journey of resilience.

“I am a supply tech and team lead for TouchPoint, presently at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis. On February 11, 2023, I will celebrate 9 years with our company. As I reflect on Black History Month, I thank God for my personal journey with the resilience to bounce back from challenges and overcome them with God’s grace. My journey begins in Chicago, where I was born and raised. Growing up in a neighborhood surrounded by drugs and gangs, eventually I ventured into both struggling to stay employed and sober all the way into my early 30s.

“In 2002, God heard my cry and had another plan, sending me to Chicago Victory Church — a Christian recovery program that saved my life. There I fell in love with Jesus and was delivered from drugs and alcohol. In 2022, I celebrated being clean and sober for 20 years.

“The program lasted 9 months, but I ended up staying 6 years to run recovery programs in Miami, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Los Angeles. I was so grateful for what God had done in my life that I developed a passion for helping others who struggled like I did — not just people with an addiction, but also the lonely, the left out, especially the homeless. After 5 years of serving God’s people, my future wife, Ruby, came through the doors and after a time of supervised fellowshipping, we were married in February 2008. By November 2008, God spoke to us to take a step of faith and move to Indianapolis, where her cousin lived and worked in human resources at a nursing home.

“We arrived in Indianapolis on Thanksgiving, moved in with our cousin, and that Sunday we attended and joined our new church, New Horizons. The next day we were both working at the nursing home, only by the grace of God. In 2010, at a weeknight ministry meeting at our church, our pastor asked a group of ministers, including myself, what each one of us was doing to help influence our community. I shared that my wife and I had started paying it forward by making sandwiches and taking bottled water downtown to bless the homeless. I felt some of the other people smirking and I boldly proclaimed to the group that this is something I was going to continue to do with or without them. After our small group dismissed, 3 of the brothers that I’d previously invited to join me said the next time I went out they would accompany me.

“My Brother’s Keeper Homeless Outreach Ministry was born May 1, 2010. It officially became a nonprofit a couple years later. Along with delivering care bags with toiletry items, which the homeless need every day, we collect clothes, blankets, and shoes.  And we serve some hot food items, including pizza courtesy of Domino’s. More importantly, we hold a service downtown the first Saturday of every month where we also share the good news of the gospel, we pray for anyone who needs prayer and try to love on God’s people with the love they deserve. Each time we go out to serve, we end up being blessed as well — with their gratitude, humility and appreciation of what God is doing in their lives and ours. My Brother’s Keeper is about resilience – developing it, encouraging it and sharing it. This May we look forward to celebrating our 13 years as a ministry.

“Besides serving the homeless in our community each month, I have the privilege of working for TouchPoint and Compass Group by delivering essential supplies throughout St. Vincent Hospital. I get to lead our huddle and help encourage our team daily, so we start our shift with a positive attitude. I pray that my story will help encourage someone.”

Thank you, Eric, for sharing your story, spreading resilience and being an inspiration!